Passing of a Brother Firefighter

I did not see any mention of this on the forums, these comments are from emails that have been sent around within the US&R community. The comment that "Rick loved US&R with all that he had..." sums it up completely as far as I am concerned, he was a good man and will be missed. Please keep his family in your thoughts, these are difficult times for them.
Thank you,
Lt. David D. Walters, Staff Officer
Florida Task Force II / Miami Fire Dept.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
FEMA Urban Search and Rescue

This e-mail is sent to the US&R TF POC e-mail list and copied to the
US&R Staff. This and FYI.

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am tremendously saddened to announce the sudden passing of a very
close friend and an extremely dedicated Urban Search and Rescue Team
member.

Lt. "Rick" Scorgie passed away Friday morning, May 27th at the age of 39.

Rick joined the South Florida Urban Search and Rescue Task Force,
FL-TF2, from a participating agency, as a Rescue Squad Team member and Technical Search Specialist in the early 1990's and eventually transitioned to become a remarkably experienced Search Team Manager for the task Force. He volunteered hundreds if not thousands of hours to make FL-TF2 the team it is today.

Rick loved US&R with all that he had and could always be counted on to be there when needed. I was fortunate to deploy with Rick on many
occasions, with the most notable to Papua New Guinea in 1998. Rick was always there and just "dam" good at what he did. He especially loved helping others and was absolutely a pleasure to work with.

Please read the following message and attachment from FL-TF2 team
member Ed Wolff concerning the arrangements being made for Rick.

On Thursday, June 2 at 2:00 PM EDT, I am asking that those that would like to join us, please spend a moment of silence for a brother firefighter and US&R Team Member as we lay him to rest.

Additionally, please feel free to forward this e-mail to those that may have known or worked with Rick.

And;

DATE: May 27, 2005

MEMO TO: ALL PERSONNEL

FROM: Chaplain Rick Braswell

SUBJECT: LT. RICHARD “RICK” SCORGIE (FIRE RESCUE)

Please be advised Lt. Scorgie passed away this morning. He transitioned to BSO from the Cooper City merger in February, 2004
but had been with Fire Rescue since January, 1986. Lt. Scorgie
was a member of the Florida Urban Search & Rescue Task Force II,
which was a part of the emergency response to New York City
on 9/11/01.

Also;

Subject: Funeral and Viewing Arrangements for Lt. Rick Scorgie

I have the unfortunate duty to let you know that Lt. Rick Scorgie
answered his final alarm early Friday morning at the age of 39.

Most of you probably knew Rick either from the FEMA FLTF 2, FL SRT-A,
Texas A&M or the special operations medical community.

Rick was a Search Team Manager for FEMA FLTF 2 and was with us at the World Trade Center in 2001, Puerto Rico and the Olympics in the 90s along with a most every other deployment that we had since the TF was started.

As a member of FL SRT-A he was our lead special ops medic tasked to
keep us alive and well on our international deployments and he will be dearly missed.

He was a co-chair for the Regional Domestic Security Task Force in
Florida and was well known as an instructor teaching weapons of mass
destruction, US&R and homeland security classes at the local, state and national levels.

The procession from the funeral home to the church will be a small
number of vehicles (7 or 8) with the vast majority being asked to stage at the church along the arrival route for Rick and his family to pass upon their arrival.

FEMA FL TF2 will be supplying USAR 1 and 2 for the procession along
with the USAR Tractor/trailers and pick-up along with a number of other TF vehicles, equipment and honor guard (thank you Joe, when I told Cindy what you were sending it really touched her heart to know, he may have groused about it at times like the rest of us but he really loved the TF and his wife Cindy knew what it meant to him).

If any other agencies plan to attend with vehicles we are asking that they stage at the Church.

Please keep Rick's wife (Cindy) daughter (Hanna) and the rest of his
family in your thoughts and prayers.